Unnatural Death

Unnatural Death, published in 1927, is the third novel written by Dorothy L. Sayers featuring her aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey. The story begins with a conversation in a restaurant between Wimsey, his friend Detective Inspector Charles Parker, and a doctor who tells them about a situation he was involved in: an elderly lady, suffering from a slow-acting cancer, died suddenly and unexpectedly with no obvious immediate cause of death. She died intestate, but her great-niece, with whom she was living, was set to inherit the considerable estate. Suspecting something wrong, the doctor demanded an autopsy, which showed nothing unusual, but stirred up such local animosity that the he was forced to abandon his practice. Wimsey, sensing a mystery, decides to investigate—but his investigation triggers a series of deadly events. One of the delights of the book is the introduction of a new character in Miss Alexandra Climpson, a middle-aged spinster whom Wimsey employs as an investigative agent, and whose effusive reports of the gossip she picks up in the town are very amusing. Unnatural Death is notable for its inclusion of one clearly lesbian character—a decision unusual in detective fiction at the time—and the very sympathetic treatment by Wimsey of a black character (though offensively racist terms for him are used by others in the book). An adaptation of the book was made for BBC radio in 1975.

The Functions of Unnatural Death in Stephen King: Murder, Sickness, and Plots examines the function of death in over thirty of King’s works to parse out the ways the Master of Horror plays with the idea of death and approaches it from multiple angles.

Miss Agatha Dawson, an elderly spinster suffering from cancer, passes away in her bed. Her GP, surprised by the suddenness of her death and unsatisfied as to its cause, orders and performs a post-mortem - which reveals no sign of foul play. But a scandal arises nonetheless. The locals, seeing the doctor's actions as tantamount to accusing Miss Dawson's niece and nurse of murder, ostracise him to the point where he sells his practice and leaves... Lord Peter Wimsey, upon hearing the tale, is intrigued, and mounts his own investigation. Then one of the old woman's maids turns up dead...

* JFK's autopsy failed to disclose crucial evidence. * The deaths of John Belushi and Elvis Presley were far more complex than anyone has let on. * Decisive medical findings in the von Bulow affair were consistently overlooked. These are but three of the shocking revelations in Dr. Michael Baden's first-person, no-holds-barred account of his distinguished career in forensic pathology. In determining the causes of tens of thousands of deaths, from those of presidents and rock stars to victims of serial killings, exotic sex rituals, mass disasters, child abuse and drug abuse, Baden has come to the unavoidable conclusion that the search for scientific truth is often sullied by the pressures of expediency. He produces dramatic evidence to demonstrate that political intrigue, influence peddling, and professional incompetence have created a national crisis in forensic medicine. "A fascinating look into the mechanics of forensics and a disconcerting lesson in the politics of death." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Unnatural death" by Dorothy L. Sayers. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

This astonishing and sobering account of government- and war-induced civilian deaths in the Soviet Union calculates that Soviet loss of life between 1928 and 1954 was far higher than Western ex-perts have ever believed. Applying mathematical techniques to Soviet demographic statistics, Dyadkin shows that Stalinist repres-sion and World War II must have taken the lives of between 43 and 52 million Soviet citizens. In the first period, 1929-36, one of collectivization, Stalin control-led and eliminated classes; during the Great Purge of 1937-38, mil-lions of Communist party members and bureaucrats were executed, and then the purge extended into the Red Army. Dyadkin shows that World War II took close to 30 million lives and that during 1950-53 another 450,000 died in prison camps.

Written in 1927, this is the third book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series and has recently been reissued by New English Library. It stands alone and could easily be read without having tried the previous titles, WHOSE BODY? and CLOUDS OF WITNESS. UNNATURAL DEATH begins with a chance encounter and conversation between Lord Peter and a doctor who tells him that he has been practically ruined because he was openly suspicious about the death of one of his patients. Unable to prove any foul play had taken place, he had been abandoned by his patients who were appalled by the attendant local publicity and the seemingly needless post-mortem that he had insisted upon. The doctor is unwilling to provide any details, but Lord Peter is intrigued by the possibility of a perfect murder and determines to identify the case and see if he can solve it.

A scientifically rigorous, multidisciplinary approach to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, for practitioners, researchers and families alike.